FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Rob Edward 303.817.4482
Federal Court Strikes-Down National Wolf Reclassification Rule Conservationists
Hail Decision Federal District Court Judge Robert E. Jones (District Court of
Oregon) yesterday issued a motion for summary judgment vacating the April 1,
2003 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision to downgrade the legal status of
wolves in the lower 48 states from “endangered” to “threatened”. Sinapu,
Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and several other national conservation
organizations challenged the federal reclassification policy, arguing that the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had inappropriately rushed to strip wolves of
their legal protections. “This decision makes clear that the federal government
has much more to do on behalf of wolves,” said Rob Edward of Sinapu. “Wolves
only occupy a small fraction of their former range, and the court agreed with us
that the job of restoring this most important carnivore is far from over.”
With the judge’s order, wolves throughout the lower forty-eight states are once
again listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Further, the
decision strikes-down the Fish & Wildlife Service’s “distinct population segment”
scheme, which divided wolf populations into four segments that
conservationists argued were arbitrary. “We hope that the government will now turn their
attention to repatriating wolves to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and other
places that desperately need wolves once again working their magic,” said Edward.
Copies of the judge’s order can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.sinapu.org/PDF/Wolf%20Decision.pdf ### --

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